The Rise and Fall of Khoqand, 1709-1876

Central Asia in the Global Age

by Scott C. Levi

Publication Year: 2017

This book analyzes how Central Asians actively engaged with the rapidly globalizing world of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In presenting the first English-language history of the Khanate of Khoqand (1709–1876), Scott C. Levi examines the rise of that extraordinarily dynamic state in the Ferghana Valley. Levi reveals the many ways in which the Khanate’s integration with globalizing forces shaped political, economic, demographic, and environmental developments in the region, and he illustrates how these same forces contributed to the downfall of Khoqand.
To demonstrate the major historical significance of this vibrant state and region, too often relegated to the periphery of early modern Eurasian history, Levi applies a “connected history” methodology showing in great detail how Central Asians actively influenced policies among their larger imperial neighbors—notably tsarist Russia and Qing China. This original study will appeal to a wide interdisciplinary audience, including scholars and students of Central Asian, Russian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, and world history, as well as the study of comparative empire and the history of globalization.

Cover

Half Title, Series Info, Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

Contents

Preface: Connecting Histories

In the process of completing work on my first book, The Indian Diaspora
in Central Asia and Its Trade, 1550–1900, an observation struck me. I had spent
years studying chronicles and government records, travel accounts, legal records,
previous scholarship in multiple languages and anything else I could get my hands
on that would help me to locate Indian merchants in locations across Central Asia ...

Acknowledgments

I began the spadework for this volume in 2002. As is often the case, I encountered
many unanticipated obstacles along the way and what I had initially
intended to be a project that would take four or five years to complete transformed
into a much greater undertaking. But some delays are not all bad. ...

Transliteration and Abbreviations

The Shahrukhid Rulers

Note on Geographic Terminology

Note on Sources

Introduction

The Khanate of Khoqand was an exceptionally dynamic Central Asian
state that gradually emerged over the course of the eighteenth century in eastern
Uzbekistan’s Ferghana (Farghāna) Valley. The Shahrukhid dynastic family that
ruled Khoqand belonged to the Ming, an Uzbek political group, or for want of a
better word, tribe.1
Although the term Uzbek is used more inclusively today, ...

1. A New Uzbek Dynasty, 1709–1769

In the northwestern part of the Ferghana Valley, a small stream flows
southward, bringing snowmelt from the distant peaks into the open plains.
Observed from a distance, the brown, dusty landscape is interrupted by a shock of
green as agriculture becomes possible along a long, narrow strip of land stretching
little more than a hundred yards to either side of the frigid water. Moving closer, ...

2. Crafting A State, 1769–1799

During the reign of Irdana Biy, Khoqand was little more than a city-state,
one of several in the Ferghana Valley. Khoqand had escaped the worst
of the destruction brought about by the Kazakh occupation of neighboring regions
in the 1720s and the Persian invasions of 1737 and 1740. But it suffered at the hands
of the Jungar Qalmaqs and only managed to repel them with the aid of the Yuz. ...

3. The Khanate Of Khoqand, 1799–1811

Narbuta Biy's long and successful reign was a gentle prelude for
greater things to come. The next stage of Khoqand’s development began more
abruptly during the short, tumultuous, and transformative reign of Narbuta Biy’s
son, ‘Alim, who initiated his fierce efforts at centralization by directing a dreadful
series of purges against all who opposed him, ...

4. A New “Timurid Renaissance,” 1811–1822

In January 1811, as ‘Alim Khan made his way across the frozen mountain
passes southeast of Tashkent only to meet his death a few miles outside of Khoqand,
his younger brother ‘Umar sat on a flat platform draped in white felt (āq kigīz),
and, as one of his supporters read aloud the Sura al-Fath (“The Victory,” Sura 48 in ...

5. A New Crisis, 1822–1844

Whereas 'Umar Khan has gone down in history as the greatest ruler
of Khoqand, his son and successor Muhammad ‘Ali, or Madali Khan, is
attributed with squandering all that his father achieved. Both representations suffer
from a degree of hyperbole: much as ‘Umar was not the paragon of Islamic virtue
that his chroniclers present him to be, ...

6. Civil War, 1844–1853

In 1842, after two decades of remarkable territorial expansion and continued
development of Khoqand’s agricultural infrastructure, a Bukharan invasion
brought Madali Khan’s reign to a violent end. Khoqand was considerably larger than
Bukhara and it boasted a formidable military, but the regime suffered a crisis of
legitimacy. By the time of Madali Khan’s reign, the Shahrukhids ...

7. Khoqand Defeated, 1853–1876

The later rulers of Khoqand (and indeed Central Asia more generally)
often appear in the historical record as despots and exploitative feudal
warlords who, if they were not completely incapable of delivering effective governance
to their people, had little interest in doing so. As is often the case, one can find
evidence to support such a perspective, ...

Conclusion

Scholarly inquiry into early modern Central Asian history has
generally languished behind work on other periods in the region’s long history.
Citing longstanding theories of regional isolation and decline, the relatively small
amount of work that has been produced on Central Asian history in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries has tended to focus on themes that reify those perceptions. ...

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